Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, NSW 2006

About

The Centre for Human Aspects of Science and Technology (CHAST) was formally constituted in 1986 as a Centre within the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney as an initiative of the Science Centenary celebrations. Its creation recognised the need to promote interdisciplinary integration of scientific knowledge and its impact on humans, our societies and the wider environment. Membership is open to those within and outside the University of Sydney.

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2009 CHAST Lecture

‘The Social History of the Personal Computer’

Lee Felsenstein

New Law School, Lecture Theatre 101,
University of Sydney

Map

Wednesday, 1st July 2009, at 6 pm

Free Admission,
All Welcome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Felsenstein

Abstract:

We all know that personal computers and the Internet did not arise on their own. But how could technology with its roots in military budgets, the stunted culture of technologists, and hierarchical corporate culture have spawned such a subversive set of products and practices?

With hindsight, drawing upon my own personal experiences as the designer of several early personal computers and peripherals, as well as moderator of the seminal Homebrew Computer Club in Silicon Valley, I will explore competing mythologies about the genesis of personal computing as well as discuss come conclusions that may illuminate not only the historical questions but also the dialectic of work versus play and how it operates different for differing personality types.

Stewart Brand, through his Whole Earth Catalog did the most to enable those who created the PC. Probing the web of interconnections in the hotbed of the San Francisco Bay area political, social and technological countercultures,  we’ll examine the interactions that produced such unlikely results.

Those who expect a story of predictable progress from point A through point B terminating at C will be disappointed. Rather, expect to hear of chaotic activity, past and present, within environments in which play is encouraged, a high degree of feedback is maintained, and mechanisms exist for reaping the benefit of unexpected technological progress.

To conclude, there will be a look at the new wave of institutions being designed to support environments today that are conducive to chaotic development for the current generation in collaboration with older ones.

Biography:

Lee Felsenstein received a B.S. in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley in 1972. He entered UC Berkeley first in 1963, joined the Co-operative Work-Study Program in Engineering in 1964 and dropped out at the end of 1967, working as a Junior Engineer at the Ampex Corporation from 1968 through 1971, when he re-enrolled at Berkeley.  Lee has been employed at Osborne Computer Corporation from 1981-1983, at Interval Research Corporation from 1992-2000, and at Pemstar Pacific Consultants from 2001-2005. All other times he has worked either as a free-lance consulting designer or for his own design firm.

Contact:  Dr. Valerie Morris
Biological Sciences A12
valm@mail.usyd.edu.au

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